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Right on time, here comes the truckers’ DC-snarlfest (Updated)

It was 1 year and 6 days ago that the last batch of “angry truckers” made a call to come into the DC area and screw up the morning rush hour to protest something. Tomorrow, they’re supposedly returning to protest high gas prices:

A group of truck drivers is planning to caravan past the White House and the Capitol before a rally to protest high gas prices.

The group Truckers and Citizens Unite says it has organized hundreds of truckers to participate in the event on Monday. The activities are expected to start about 9 a.m.

No street closures are planned, but the influx of trucks could cause traffic disruptions during the morning rush hour.

Hey, we’re all steamed about the price of gas. (Well, all of us except the gas companies, I’d imagine.) The impact of higher fuel prices directly affects truckers but it does reach us all in one manner or another. My mother’s on a fixed income – she has very little capability to increase her income so higher gas prices force her to cut other spending, not raise her rates. All of us get dinged for the cost of gas in higher prices of virtually everything we consume. I understand fully the frustration of it all and I certainly do not suggest that the truckers shouldn’t speak their minds.

But speaking is what I’m talking about, not purposely snarling up rush hour traffic in the city with the second-worst traffic in the nation. As I mentioned in last year’s post, any action deliberately taken to cause innocent fellow citizens inconvenience and worse will backfire.

Mark my words. This will backfire and you will never, ever be able to say “we’re sorry” enough. Those people will never trust you or any of your ilk for the remainder of their lives and they will positively never look with an ounce of sympathy on you and your situation for the rest of your days. There are ways to get the message across that generate interest and positive action. This so ain’t it.

Now, I’ve got no information that says, as last year’s anticipated protest did, that there’s any intention to bring the traffic to a standstill. Playing with the ability of vehicles to move in as free a fashion as would be normally allowed does nothing but increase the chance that some desperately needed assistance will be late in coming or come not at all. I applaud the truckers’ desire to get a message across. They need to take care that the recipient of the message is who they intend and try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.

Update: Well, it looks like the truckers managed to have their protest without significantly affecting traffic. Nicely done, folks. I’m still not sure a mandated gas price cap is the way to go but you’ve gotten your message out there. That’s the important thing.